To support LPCs in matching the incredible success of last year’s service, PSNC has once again developed a wide range of resources to help with communications and marketing. There are resources which aim to gain interest from the local media, as well as more general information intended for patients and the public.

Whilst many of the resources were available to LPCs in previous years, PSNC has brought them together into one place and all have been updated to relate specifically to this year’s service specification. The toolkit is replicated below, but can also be found at: psnc.org.uk/lpcflutoolkit

Flu Vaccination Service promotional toolkit

Part 1: Service launch

PSNC Briefing 062/17: Flu Vaccination Service template press release
This PSNC Briefing contains a template press release which provides some suggested text for LPCs to use with local media outlets at the launch of the service. The template includes areas where LPCs may wish to include local information, plus quotes from a local community pharmacist and an LPC representative.

Flu Vaccination Service advert templates
You may also wish to generate interest amongst the local population by promoting the community pharmacy service in local newspapers and magazines. This document includes both A4 and A5 sizes, as well as black-and-white options, to fit a variety of advertising budgets.

Part 2: Reaching out to local stakeholders

Promoting the service to local charity support groups will help increase their members’ awareness of the importance of having a flu vaccination and that the NHS Flu Vaccination Service is widely available in community pharmacies as well as from GP practices. The following resources have been created to help LPCs.

LPCs may want to consider using social media networks, such as Twitter, to promote the Flu Vaccination Service. The following resources are available to support you in using this method of communicating with patients or other stakeholders.

]]>Retention of pharmacy recordshttp://psnc.org.uk/our-news/retention-of-pharmacy-records/
Tue, 15 Aug 2017 14:52:26 +0000http://psnc.org.uk/?post_type=our-latest-news&p=201598Community pharmacies will be familiar with their professional obligations to make records, as appropriate, but often the question remains as to how long to keep pharmacy records.

To help contractors, PSNC have added a new page which outlines and signposts to relevant authoritative sources of guidance at: psnc.org.uk/recordkeeping

View our CPN magazine online via the flipbook reader below. Alternatively, to download and save or print a copy, please click here. Please note, the colour PDF can be printed out in black-and-white and will still be clear to read.

]]>Ask PSNC: Flu FAQshttp://psnc.org.uk/our-news/ask-psnc-flu-faqs/
Mon, 14 Aug 2017 08:15:14 +0000http://psnc.org.uk/?post_type=our-latest-news&p=201523]]>The team at PSNC has received a number of queries ahead of the NHS Flu Vaccination Service 2017/18 going live. Below are some of the questions asked in recent weeks.

Q.Can distance selling pharmacies provide the NHS Flu Advanced Vaccination Service?Yes. A distance selling pharmacy may provide Advanced and Enhanced Services, as long as any Essential Service which forms part of the Advanced or Enhanced Service is not provided to persons present at the premises. The distance selling pharmacy must fully meet the requirements for the provision of the Flu Vaccination Service, which includes the consultation room requirements.

Q.What insurance should you have for the NHS Advanced Flu Vaccination Service?Advice should be sought from your insurance provider.

Q.I completed face-to-face training covering injection technique and basic life support last year, but I have been told that unless I vaccinated over a specific number of patients last year I will need to re-do the training again this year. Does this apply to the NHS Advanced Flu Vaccination Service?No, this does not apply to the NHS Advanced Flu Vaccination Service. NHS England has determined that pharmacists providing the Flu Vaccination Service need to attend face-to-face training for both injection technique and basic life support training every two years, irrespective of how many vaccines are administered each year.

If you are providing private flu vaccinations (not as part of the NHS Advanced Flu Vaccination Service) there may be minimum activity requirements in order for your training to be valid; this should be verified with the private PGD provider.

Q.Do pharmacists need to complete the safeguarding and consultation skills e-assessment every two years when reviewing their DoC?This is a decision that needs to be made by the individual pharmacist. A pharmacist is personally responsible for keeping their knowledge and skills up to date and relevant to their roles and responsibilities. There are regular developments in practice in particular with regard to Safeguarding which require pharmacists to ensure they are aware of new developments in this area.

The pharmacist should reflect on their current competencies, and make a decision on whether further learning is required.

It is also important to note, that Consultation Skills for Pharmacy Practice is not a ‘tick box’ exercise. As a pharmacy professional, you should continuously seek to develop your consultation skills throughout your career and, therefore, this topic should regularly feature in your CPD plan. To access the assessment, go to the CPPE website.

Q.How will contractors determine that their pharmacists have the necessary knowledge and skills to provide the NHS Advanced Flu Vaccination Service?The Declaration of Competence (DoC) approach (developed by the Community Pharmacy Competence Group) is being used to assure contractors that pharmacists have the necessary knowledge and skills to provide the service. An existing DoC for vaccination services has been edited for use in the Advanced Service; it is available on the CPPE website.

Dipesh Raghwani

When Dipesh Raghwani’s LPC merged with several others to form Greater Manchester LPC his role changed from the Chief Officer of a small LPC to the Project Implementation and Clinical Lead of a new, much larger LPC. It was this big change that prompted Dipesh to apply for PSNC’s Leadership Academy programme.

Dipesh says the Academy has been a good networking opportunity as it provided an environment where he could talk to like-minded people and share good practice. Ideas and suggestions relating to services has been a popular topic within the group sessions and Dipesh has found that “there is some cracking stuff going on elsewhere”.

The one-to-one coaching sessions with course leader Rachel Harrison have also been invaluable as Dipesh has found she strikes the right balance between pushing him along and highlighting areas for improvement.

The learning that Dipesh has taken away from the programme has led him to take a new approach to LPC work. In particular he has helped the LPC to identify more opportunities to be proactive; ensuring the LPC is benefitting its contractors at a local level as well as across the region​.

Dipesh wants to drive the profession forward, “so we’re seen as an equal partner in primary care”, and would love to represent community pharmacy at a higher level with hopes of becoming a PSNC regional representative in the future.

Luvjit Kandula

As Chief Officer of Leicestershire and Rutland LPC, Luvjit Kandula found that constant changes in the profession left her feeling overwhelmed. However, she thought that a Leadership Academy led by the negotiator PSNC would be a great place to get some support.

Luvjit welcomed the opportunity to connect with others who share her issues and frustrations, as well as to develop her leadership skills. She also found the programme’s one-to-one sessions extremely helpful as they made her more conscious of her own leadership style.

Since joining the Academy, Luvjit has made significant changes at her LPC, leading to better team-working. All LPC members have now reviewed their own working personalities and shared their findings to help everyone get to know the different skills within the team and adjust their styles of interaction to better suit others.

This also helped the LPC to become more responsive to contractors’ needs, because they were listening to others’ views. Now Luvjit has a committee who are not only engaged with local pharmacy teams but also supportive of initiatives such as the roll-out of Healthy Living Pharmacies.

Luvjit’s aim for the future is for community pharmacy to become part of the local healthcare strategy with further commissioning of pharmacy services. Recently there has been some good progress with the local Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) team around medicines optimisation, prevention, digital and other workstreams.

Whilst she recognises that the LPC is still on a journey towards full integration, Luvjit says PSNC’s Leadership Academy has been worth the investment as “you can’t be an effective change leader if you don’t have support yourself”.

Supporting LPC Leaders

Are you an LPC Leader? Would you be interested in meeting with a group of other local leaders who understand your viewpoint and you can share tips with? Then look no further than PSNC’s upcoming LPC Leaders Forum: Working Together to Lead and Effect Change, taking place on Wednesday 27th September 2017 in London.

Facilitated by Rachel Harrison who leads the PSNC Leadership Academy, this event is aimed at experienced LPC members, officers and staff who are established and recognised as leaders in their LPC work. It is an opportunity to become part of a new network with established LPC leaders to enhance leadership skills, share good practice and access peer support, as well as a day to enjoy with other LPC leaders from across the country.

]]>PSNC publishes resources on pharmacy cashflow changeshttp://psnc.org.uk/our-news/psnc-publishes-resources-on-pharmacy-cashflow-changes/
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 09:24:07 +0000http://psnc.org.uk/?post_type=our-latest-news&p=201433]]>PSNC’s Funding Team has today published further materials to help community pharmacy contractors to understand how recent changes may be affecting their cashflow.

]]>Healthcare regulators publish joint statement on conflicts of interesthttp://psnc.org.uk/our-news/healthcare-regulators-publish-joint-statement-on-conflicts-of-interest/
Wed, 09 Aug 2017 08:01:01 +0000http://psnc.org.uk/?post_type=our-latest-news&p=201406]]>The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and eight other healthcare regulators across the United Kingdom have published a joint statement on conflicts of interest.

The joint statement sets out what is expected of all healthcare professionals in relation to avoiding, declaring and managing conflicts of interest across all healthcare settings. The statement is intended to support each regulator’s professional standards, codes and guidance, which the statement says “should be the overriding consideration for professionals.”

GPhC, the GMC and PSNI have also published a joint case study on prescription direction – which is of relevance to community pharmacy teams. The note to the case study states:

“While this scenario focusses on a doctor who had commercial interests in a pharmacy, it could also apply to a range of healthcare professionals who may have a direct or indirect financial interest in another business, regardless of the ownership model.”

]]>PSNC support for the Flu Vaccination Service 2017/18http://psnc.org.uk/our-news/psnc-support-for-the-flu-vaccination-service-201718/
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 11:32:36 +0000http://psnc.org.uk/?post_type=our-latest-news&p=201307]]>Although the Directions, service specification and Patient Group Direction for the Flu Vaccination Service 2017/18 have not yet been published, the service will remain very similar to the service commissioned in 2016/17.

PSNC is keen to provide support to community pharmacy contractors ahead of the start of the service, planned for 1st September 2017, therefore Rosie Taylor, Head of Service Development at PSNC, has recorded a presentation which provides information on the requirements of the Flu Vaccination Service 2017/18 as well as providing tips on the practical delivery of the service (see below).

The flu hub on the PSNC website (psnc.org.uk/flu) has been updated, which includes an extensive list of frequently asked questions about the service. Other PSNC flu resources are currently being updated and will be published over the coming weeks ahead of the launch of the service. Links to documents from other organisations such as NHS England and the NHS Business Services Authority will be added as and when these become available.

Contractors are encouraged, if not already done so, to sign up to PSNC e-newsletters at psnc.org.uk/enews to ensure they are notified when the service documents are published by NHS England and the Secretary of State Directions are amended, which will provide the green light for the service to be provided from 1st September 2017, as well as the publication of other resources from PSNC.

Flu Vaccination Service video

]]>Quality Payments: List of patient safety alerts and recalls publishedhttp://psnc.org.uk/our-news/quality-payments-list-of-patient-safety-alerts-and-recalls-published/
Thu, 27 Jul 2017 10:20:21 +0000http://psnc.org.uk/?post_type=our-latest-news&p=200877]]>A new page has been published on the PSNC website which lists:

patient safety alerts and recalls which have previously been highlighted as news stories on the PSNC website;

advice and guidance relating to patient safety which have previously been highlighted as news stories on the PSNC website; and

Although pharmacy teams should have responded as appropriate to the above within the required time frames, those that have been highlighted as news stories on the PSNC website have been listed on this page as a quick reference for pharmacy teams to check that they are aware of all of these and have taken appropriate action when required.

Community pharmacy contractors may wish to refer to this page when completing their patient safety report to meet the Quality Payments Scheme quality criterion which states:

Written safety report at premises level available for inspection at review point, covering analysis of incidents and incident patterns (taken from an ongoing log), evidence of sharing learning locally and nationally, and actions taken in response to national patient safety alerts.

The patient safety report should contain details of how contractors have responded to medicines recalls and national patient safety alerts. Further information on what else should be included in the report can be found on the Quality Payments – Patient safety report page of the PSNC website.

]]>Two weeks left to respond to consultation on Minor Ailment Service toolkithttp://psnc.org.uk/our-news/two-weeks-left-to-respond-to-consultation-on-minor-ailment-service-toolkit/
Tue, 25 Jul 2017 07:30:21 +0000http://psnc.org.uk/?post_type=our-latest-news&p=200776]]>There is now only two weeks left to submit feedback on the Minor Ailment Service toolkit consultation before this closes on Tuesday 8th August 2017.

The Minor Ailment Service toolkit is the first toolkit to be produced as part of PSNC’s work to support LPCs to get local services commissioned.

As part of this work, PSNC is seeking external feedback from interested parties, in particular from service commissioners and LPCs. We hope that this inclusive approach will help enhance the contents of the toolkits and raise awareness of them, resulting in increased uptake by commissioners.

First toolkit – Minor Ailment Service

The Minor Ailment Service toolkit contains a number of resources to assist with the commissioning of a service, for example, a costing toolkit; a business case; service specification; implementation plan; and resources to notify local GP practices about the commissioning of a new service.

PSNC would welcome comments on the toolkit documents to ensure these are as useful as possible for LPCs and commissioners.

Full details on the consultation process and the consultation documents can be found at: psnc.org.uk/ctp